Why Ruusbroec Wrote Away from the City
John of Ruusbroec’s woodland writing was more than a picturesque habit. In the 14th century, he lived and worked in a religious world where silence and solitude were valued as aids to prayer. Away from the noise and demands of urban life, the forest offered space to concentrate on the inner life he sought to describe.
Ruusbroec was not simply recording private visions. His works tried to explain how a person might turn from distraction toward God, and how contemplation could shape ordinary conduct. The woods suited that subject: the setting helped make sustained attention possible, while also reflecting the withdrawal from worldly bustle that his spiritual writing explored.
A Wax Tablet for Work in Progress
A wax tablet was a reusable writing surface: the writer scratched letters into its coating, then smoothed the wax to erase them. It was practical for drafting, since phrases could be changed without wasting costly parchment. Ruusbroec could work through difficult ideas in short passages, revise them, and later produce a more permanent version.
That distinction matters. The tablet was a tool for composition, not necessarily the final form in which readers encountered his books. His lasting achievement lay in turning thoughts formed in quiet into carefully structured works that could circulate beyond the forest—and guide readers who had never shared his solitude.
